“Tradition! Honor! Discipline! Excellence!” The students shout each of the four pillars held at Welton Academy at the beginning of the school year. But tradition seems to change after the new English professor enters the scene.

“We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race.” English professor John Keating (Robin Williams) pierces the ears of his students with such words. With a powerful statement like that, it’s hard not to feel your heart beating in pace with the other living bodies of the room. Suddenly the white-walled simplicity of a traditional classroom is illumined by the shedding of light on a new angle of human reality.

Professor Keating teaches a classroom full of boys that this life is fleeting, and that there is much life to live in this brief time that we are given on earth. He shows them how to view the world as a stage, life as a play, and mankind as the actors; we may all contribute a verse. “What will your verse be?” Keating questions the boys, full of life and future.

The non-traditional and almost eccentric teaching techniques of Keating intrigue his students, leading to the discovery of the “Dead Poets Society,” of which Keating was once a member in his younger days. What was the Dead Poets Society? Keating tells his students of times spent in a cave near the school grounds where he and other young men once joined to read poetry together. But it was more than that: “We didn’t just read poetry, we let it drip from our tongues like honey.” The curiosity of the boys had been aroused, and the order of the Dead Poets was resurrected.

The boys hear the words of their teacher echo in their minds: “Carpe Diem! Seize the day, boys.” They grasp onto this phrase with zeal, but are unsure of how to apply it to their lives. In the case of Keating’s students, their application of this Carpe Diem philosophy ended in disaster.

In pursuit of living life abundantly, both Professor Keating and his students were borrowing a truth from Christianity. Yet how can one borrow from Christianity without attributing life to Christ? Inevitably, it results in its own type of rebellion. While Keating taught truths of life and urged his students to live to the fullest, they could only channel this meaningfulness back to themselves. It was a life of self-glorification, giving no acknowledgement to the Creator of beauty and the richness of life. The Dead Poets Society turned into a deadly zeal – a zeal for life, but one without true purpose.

Is there nothing, then, to learn from the teachings that Keating found so vital to instill in these boys? Is it all to be disregarded? I would respond with an emphatic “No.” While Keating was ignorant of the Creator of beauty, he was also keenly aware of beauty’s existence.

In the knowledge of Christ, we find a true compatibility with tradition, honor, discipline, excellence, and poeticism, love, passion, and “seizing the day.” We should live life to the fullest because this life is for Christ, not for ourselves. We should all contribute a verse to the powerful play because Christ is directing us – and we are in submission to His will. This is His story, and not our own.

Related Links:
Buy Dead Poets Society at Amazon.com

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Rachel Eyre lives with her family in Eastern Washington and edits Chasing Hats.